RapLeaf - its all about reputation (and having fun)

Migrating this from typepad (I guess there is no way to migrate Auren's comment!)

DATE: 06/24/2006 08:26:31 AM
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BODY:

I guess I should start with a "hello world" post...but I'll do that a little later since right now I'm my sole reader :).

But if you happen to be not me, I had some fun brainstorming with Auren Hoffman and Manish Shah on their reputation startup before Rapleaf even had a name! In fact, I think I was the one who first introduced the "rap" in Rapleaf, emailing from the balcony over the gates of Tiananmen Square on my global roaming blackberry with a bunch of name suggestions!

This is a cc: of what I posted on their RapLeaf forums:

First of all, thanks Auren and Manish for allowing me to be a small
part of what will be a big journey. I've always been a sucker for
reductionist, single-factor theories, so since we started our chats
about RapLeaf...I SEE REPUTATION EVERYWHERE! I saw it in China, where
the environment is super low-trust, without a legal framework that
works for you, and people are forced to rely entirely on relationships
and reputation to make decisions. I see it in World of Warcraft, where
players form Guilds to create a social compact so people can engage in
more sharing and altruism that ultimately benefits the whole.

On that note, I think there are things to be learned from game design
toward all consumer applications design, and I recently saw a
presentation at Supernova2006 from Amy Jo Kim of Shufflebrain.com that
I really liked. She comes up with the 5 key factors that drive game
addictiveness:

1. collecting
2. points
3. feedback
4. exchanges
5. customization

Here's her pitch from an earlier conference:
http://shufflebrain.com/GDC2006.htm

So my challenge to you guys is: how can you make RapLeaf more FUN? What
would make me want to trick out my blog, my listings, etc. with
RapLeaf? What would get me to put more content into RapLeaf about
myself?

So anyway, I see everything through the lens of REPUTATION, except when I see everything through the lens of GAMING!